Customers are the lifeblood of any business: the reason it exists, and the reason it survives.
Yet most businesses rely on their growth through focusing on attracting new customers.
According to the Harvard Business Review article increasing your customer loyalty by 5% can result in a 25-95% increase in overall growth of the business.
It’s also a lot cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one; research shows that on average, acquiring a new customer costs 5-25X the price of retaining an existing customer.
Acknowledging the importance of strong customer loyalty is the first step, but where should a business start in building a powerful customer loyalty strategy?
With our extensive research into loyalty-focused businesses, our team have identified 4 crucial steps for building customer loyalty.
Communicate post-sale
How many times have you been wooed during the sales process, only to hear very little once your credit card is over the line?
All too often, 90% of a company’s efforts go into getting an additional sale, and engaging with customers post sale becomes, literally, an afterthought.
Businesses that take the time to communicate with their customers post-sale have been found to have a significantly more loyal customer base to build their business on.
This communication can (and should) take many forms: anything from sending regular educational emails, to engaging with customers on social, retargeting them with special offers, and even attending industry events and trade shows just to stay top of mind.
Listen & respond to feedback
Communication doesn’t simply mean talking to your clients. It means letting them talk to you.
In a world that is ballooning in size, personal interactions and tight social circles are dying out. Yet somehow, now more than ever, customers are demanding be heard (and actually listened to) by brands.
Nowhere is this more evident than on social media, where voices and opinions are broadcast to every corner of the globe.
Though the public vocalisation of feedback can be a scary thought for a brand, the smart companies are using this as an opportunity to give consumers honest updates on what their teams are working on, asking customers directly for feedback, and genuinely trying to understand their pain points and how to better address them.
The best businesses are humble yet proactive in responding and demonstrating that they are acting on the suggestions and feedback. Even if they’re not acting on it a particular problem, they’ll share their reasoning behind the decision.
Personalise & understand
In an age where customers carefully curate the information they consume, it’s essential to maintain a personalised approach for every interaction a customer has with a business.
Whether it’s segmentation based on demographics, psychographics, or past behaviour, personalisation goes a long way in building a strong bond between the customer and the business.
Investing in a hyper-functional CRM or messaging platform is an easy way to track customer data and activity, and send relevant communications around this.
Continue to add value
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Loyalty is not built off a single transaction or moment, but rather a consistent feeling and experience that they get from the business.
Businesses with the most loyal customer bases continue to deliver value to their existing audience to ensure that they keep delivering value over time.
An effective way of delivering ongoing value is to create rewards for their customers.
Unfortunately when most businesses think of rewards, they automatically think of providing discounts to their own product. Most customers see right through this tactic and is more harmful than helpful in developing trust and loyalty with customers.
The best reward systems involve:
i) An understanding of the values and preferences of their audience as individuals
ii) The option and choice to find the reward that best suits them.
Building out your own rewards program can take a long time and be very expensive, but it doesn’t need to be! Carrots Plus has built a “plug and play” rewards program that allows businesses to simply implement an effective rewards program without the costs and infrastructure required to build your own.
Building an effective rewards program can have a significant impact on your businesses ability to provide value to its customers beyond its core products, ensuring greater customer loyalty and retention.
Carrots Plus is plug-and-play rewards software that allows you to create your own loyalty program for your business. If you want to reduce customer attrition and improve loyalty you should speak to us today!